


in another life

by chininiris



Series: yuriashe week 2020 [5]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Childhood Friends, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Reincarnation, YuriAshe Week (Fire Emblem), YuriAshe Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:20:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26497048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chininiris/pseuds/chininiris
Summary: The story is one he knows, somehow, as he enunciates the words quietly under his breath, tripping every once in a while at a particularly long word. It’s almost like he can hear someone else reading it at the same time, their weight pressed against his side.Yuri doesn’t notice that he falls asleep at some point of the book, and dreams of a boy with grey hair that wields a bow.For YuriAshe Week. Day Five: robbery/heist &promise
Relationships: Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert/Yuris Leclair | Yuri Leclerc
Series: yuriashe week 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1920853
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22
Collections: YURIASHE WEEK 2020





	in another life

**Author's Note:**

> For [Yuriashe Week](https://twitter.com/yuriasheweek)

Yuri’s young, maybe too young, but already he can tell that their lives aren’t as easy as the ones he sees in big TVs on display windows. 

He’s aware of the glaring differences between him and the other kids with their clean clothes and shiny shoes and new toys, while he wears hand-me-downs that are too big for his small frame, flimsy shoes with holes in the bottom, and plays with whatever he can get his hands on.

They live in a rundown building at the edge of town, with chipped paint and cracked walls, and the small apartment contains nothing more than the basics when it comes to furniture. At times, they go days without light or water. Sometimes, he eats only a meal per day, sometimes two if he’s lucky, but it’s not uncommon for him to go a few days without food. Yuri hardly ever sees his mom eat, as she says she had food before getting home in the evenings, but he can hear her stomach growling when they lie together to sleep at night, sharing the small bed in the only bedroom of their apartment. 

Life isn’t easy, but his mother is strong and a fighter, and she leaves day after day to provide them with what she can. Yuri loves and looks up to her, and he wants to be strong and a fighter too.

He wants to help.

* * *

Yuri peers around the corner of the street, eyeing the area of an outdoor café. More specifically, the purse of a young woman that’s placed on the seat by her side. 

This one will be easy, he thinks. He’s small, fast, and he has some experience. He can grab the purse, make a run for it and leave before he can be found, maybe hide in an alleyway until it’s safe to go home. There has to be something of value inside, but the purse by itself seems expensive enough. 

Yuri starts walking in the direction of the café, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible as he approaches his target. The woman seems to be distracted by a phone call. Good, it will make things easier. 

His fingers wrap around the handle of the purse and he breaks into a run, hearing the shout of the woman when she realizes what’s happened. He doesn’t stop, he doesn’t turn around, he doesn’t as much as consider looking over his shoulder. The only thing on his mind is running as fast as he can, ignoring the bumps on the sidewalk that hurt the soles of his feet. He’d left his only pair of shoes at home, couldn’t risk tripping or getting it lost. 

Despite his efforts, Yuri doesn’t make it very far. Something latches onto the scruff of his shirt, halting his mad escape and tugging him backwards instead. He prepares for the fall, bracing himself to hit the concrete, but a broad hand keeps him upright.

“Just where do you think you are going?” Yuri bristles at the man’s condescending tone, turning to glare at him. The man is very green, his hair as dark as his beard and eyes, which widen as he takes a look at Yuri’s face. He is quiet for a few beats, keeping Yuri pinned in place with a hand on his shoulder, then calls out, “I think you will want to see this.” 

The same woman from before approaches them, her light colored hair windswept from running the short distance, a green shade that makes him think of the sea foam he’s seen on old magazines. 

“Do you think...?” The man asks as they share a brief glance

“Yes,” she says softly, crouching down to be at eye level with Yuri. He wants to back away, not trusting any of them to not hit him for trying to steal her purse, but the green man keeps him rooted on the spot. She offers a tentative smile. “What’s your name?” 

He bites his tongue. He doesn’t want to say anything, but she keeps staring and it’s getting honestly kind of unnerving how big her eyes are, so eventually he relents. “...Yuri.” 

“I see.” She breathes out, the smile blooming into a full grin. It leaves him dizzy and confused. Why would she be grinning? Why does she look so happy? It’s just a name and he just tried to run off with her purse. “Are you hungry? That café has a good selection of sweets.” 

Yuri shouldn’t accept. He’s smart enough to know that something bad can happen. His mom has told him to never talk to strangers, for fear that he might get snatched away and taken somewhere to be forced to do things kids shouldn’t, but... She’s smiling at him so kindly, the man’s face has softened some as well, and something in him seems to trust these two, like the gut instinct that he relies on on a daily basis.

Besides, his stomach is now stirring at the mention of food, and it won’t be long until it growls and signals he hasn’t had anything to eat since last evening, so he tucks his chin towards his chest and nods once. 

The woman offers him her hand, and he hesitates before taking it, but ultimately her fingers wrap around his smaller ones. Her skin is smooth and warm, and she hoists her purse on her other shoulder as she guides him back to the café, returning to the table she’d been occupying. 

She orders a lot of things, so many things Yuri’s sure he won’t be able to stomach all of them. He starts with the fish sandwich, follows it up with sweet buns, then dives into a serving of peach sorbet. All the while, she pours some sweet, fruity tea into his cup and just seems content to let him eat to his heart’s content as she and the other man share a teapot of a spicier smelling tea. 

“How do you remember...?” The man whispers to her at some point, but she doesn’t bother to give him a concrete answer, only a slight shrug. 

Halfway through a serving of saghert and cream, Yuri has to stop or else he might get sick. She offers him a disposable napkin and pours some more cooled tea to help wash down all he’s eaten. “Satisfied?” He nods, wiping his face and hands clean. The man stands from his seat and enters the café, leaving them alone. 

The woman leans an elbow on the table, resting her chin on her palm. “You seem pretty young to be wandering around by yourself,” she comments, and he gives her a wary look. “How old are you?” 

Again, she stares at him with big eyes and he tries not to squirm under her gaze. “...Six.” 

She hums and her eyes are distant for a second, but the glazed look vanishes as quickly as it came. “Very young indeed. Come on, we’ll take you back to your home.” She stands, tucking her chair under the table. Yuri belatedly notices that the man has returned, holding two paper bags in his hand. “It’s late, your mother must be worried.” 

At the mention of his mother, Yuri springs up from his seat. He’s hesitant about letting them take him back home, about leading them anywhere near it, but there’s something about this woman that just makes him feel... Safe. No other stranger had ever made him feel like this, not even the ones that had willingly given him food or money before. He looks at her kind smile and the man with gentle eyes and thinks, _I can trust you_ , but he doesn’t know why _._

Yuri lets her take his hand again and starts walking. 

* * *

He opens the door to their dingy apartment, unsurprised to find it unlocked. Though the man and the woman aren’t dressed in fancy outfits, their clothes are of good quality, and he’s oddily aware of how their lives are much different. Usually it doesn’t bother him, but it’s different when they’re standing in the entrance of his home.

As the front door creaks to announce his arrival, his mother comes bounding from the bedroom, hair disheveled and clothes rumpled and dirty. She used to own better clothes too, once, before she lost her job and everything spiraled out of control, but that was before he was born. 

She hardly pays the strangers any mind as she kneels down and pulls him into her arms. “Oh dear,” she presses a kiss to his temple, tucking his head under her chin. “Where’ve you been? I told you not to leave.” 

A rustle from behind him draws her attention, and his mom quickly stands up, still keeping him close. “You- did you-” 

“Yuri here got lost downtown,” the woman says with a smile. The man is standing right behind her, face still kind. “We just helped him find the way back home.”

Yuri’s eyes widen, and so does her smile when she notices his reaction. She’s actively covering for him, leaving out the part where he tried to run away with her bag and everything in it. 

“I- thank you,” his mom breathes out in relief, bowing her head slightly. “Thank you for bringing him home.” 

“It was no problem,” the man replies, half turning towards the door. “We will be leaving now. Have a good evening.” 

And just like that, they go, the door shutting softly behind the woman’s back. Yuri sees her clad in a long white dress for a moment, though he was sure she’d been wearing jeans and a shirt. His mom draws him into a hug again, kissing the top of his head repeatedly. 

“What’s that?” He pulls away at her question, looking in the direction of the small kitchen counter where two paper bags sit waiting. The same bags the man had been carrying when they left the café.

His mother opens them to find a wide variety of sandwiches and sweets inside, as well as bottles of that sweet tea he’d been given. Dinner for his mom, he thinks, and maybe breakfast too.

That night, after they go to sleep, he dreams of a boy with green eyes and a freckled face for the first time.

* * *

Two days later, they get this fancy envelope in their mailbox. The quality of the paper is above average, thick, sturdy, sealed off with an actual wax seal and addressed for his mom. She’s as confused as he is, opening it with equal parts curiosity and trepidation, unfolding the letter from within with care.

“Oh Goddess...” She breathes, and he peers over her shoulder to catch a glimpse at the printed letters. It takes a while - she taught him how to read, but he doesn’t practice it often enough - but he gets the gist of it soon. 

It’s a response from a job offer that she doesn’t remember applying for, she explains anyway, pulling him into her arms so tightly it makes him squirm. Hope is a dangerous thing to have and nurture, but despite the uncertainty the future holds, they’re both looking forward to the interview in a few days.

His mom digs up a dress from the back of the old wardrobe, one of the few good things that remain and she keeps around for times like this. She washes and irons it, and before she leaves for the interview, he braids her hair himself. It’s a bit loose, but he’s proud of the work he’s done. His mother kisses the top of his head again and tells him to stay home and take care, then leaves. 

She returns hours later, a smile so wide on her face it’s blinding. Sweeping him up in a hug and a twirl, his mom reveals she’s been hired. 

* * *

They move to their new place the next week. “You’re going to love it there, dear,” she says as they pack their few belongings in a box, and proceeds to list off all the benefits from the job.

The job position is to help a researcher in the local university, Garreg Mach. Nothing that entails the research in itself, but rather organizing his schedule, managing his seminars, answering phone calls and emails, and things of the like. Like a secretary, she explains, and his mom has some previous experience from working in an office very briefly, so she isn’t too nervous about screwing up. The university offers dorm rooms for students and part of the staff, and they had a vacant apartment that could be hers as soon as she accepted the job, which she readily did. On top of all the benefits, it pays amazingly well.

Really, it all sounds too good to be true, but it’s actually very much real once he’s inside their new apartment. It’s clean, well lit, ventilated. There are no cracks on the walls and the coat of paint seems fresh. It offers some built-in furniture, like cupboards, cabinets, shelves and wardrobes, and it has two rooms. One of them is his. 

Yuri can’t help but feel that all of this is a big stroke of luck, but he’s not going to complain about whatever brought them here. This is better than all he’s ever known.

* * *

It’s like Yuri is suddenly thrust into a different world, shifting from the life of poverty that he knew to a new one seemingly overnight. He has new clothes, brand new and not hand-me-downs, and a backpack with cartoon birds, and school materials that he can’t stop looking at, and books, and toys. 

He’s enrolled in a school for the first time, and his mom kisses him goodbye by the gates before the teacher comes to take him to the classroom. It’s slow at first, and kind of hard to keep up, but he manages. Strong and a fighter, just like his mom. It’s all he wants to be, and he won’t quit or back down from any kind of challenge, even if it’s just trying to write in cursive letters within the guidelines.

There’s a girl in his classroom, with silky brown hair and green eyes. The first time their eyes met, something came to him, like a scene from a movie watched through murky water. Yuri saw her - but she was different, _older_ \- singing in a lush garden, then it shifted into a vision of her, bleeding on cobblestone, and he’s never glanced her way since. It was kind of freaky, and it honestly made him kind of scared to see that, to see her dying, because somehow he just _knew_ it was her, the same Dorothea Arnault that likes to hum as she colors pictures.

One day after class, his mom is late to pick him up. Yuri sits on a bench by the gates, backpack on his lap, aware of the curious gaze Dorothea gives him ever so often from where she’s sitting on the other end. Her parent is also late, it seems, and he can feel that she’s itching to start a conversation.

“You don’t talk much, do you?” She asks, swinging her legs back and forth. Her backpack is pastel pink and glittery with a fluffy keychain. He gives her a reproachful look, which only makes her giggle. “Do you have any friends?”

He doesn’t answer, not much interested in making friends of any kind. It’s always been him and his mom, and it’s fine by him if things remain that way. Not to mention, he doesn’t want to see any of those strange images with her again, especially the bloody one.

Dorothea makes to approach him, to close the distance between them, but a new arrival has her leaping up instead. “Mom!” His classmate runs up to the woman, looping her arms around her mother’s waist in a tight hug.

She waves as they leave, and Yuri quietly watches them walking away. For just the blink of an eye, Dorothea is older again, dressed in a different school uniform, talking to a woman with blue hair. Then the vision dissipates when they turn around the corner, and Yuri looks down at the cartoon bird print of his backpack instead.

* * *

“Mom?” He asks one evening as she’s stirring the cooking spaghetti on the pot. Before the new job, Yuri hardly remembers the last time he saw her preparing dinner. “Do you know a woman with green hair and eyes?” 

“I know three of them, sweetie.” His mother sets aside the spoon and dries her hands with a kitchen towel. Oh Goddess, there are _three_ of them? “Why do you ask?”

Yuri continues to pick at the basil leaves, plucking them away from the stems, recalling a dream he had. A woman cutting air itself with a gleaming blade, stepping out of nothingness, hair and coat sleeves billowing in the whirlwind she created. This one he knows, the same woman from the café that one time. “I saw one like that recently.” 

She hums thoughtfully, walking closer to run her fingers through his hair. He’s taken a lot after her, for which he’s grateful; he doesn’t want to look like a father he’s never met and isn’t in the picture. “Well, there’s Flayn, she’s one of the professors in the university and teaches history. Then there’s Miss Rhea. She doesn’t teach there, but she visits sometimes. And then there’s the president, Miss Byleth.”

“Byleth?” He echoes, the name sounding strangely familiar on his tongue. “What’s she like?” 

“She’s actually the one who found you that one time,” his mom explains, pinching his cheek lightly. “I was pretty surprised when I found out. That man that was with her is her secretary, Mr. Seteth.” 

That explains some things. Not a lot, definitely not why he feels like he’s seen them before - _Byleth_ , more specifically - or why he dreamed of her doing something so fantastical, but it’s something. “Are they family?” 

“From what I heard, yes.” She pats his head and returns to the stove to tend to the spaghetti. “They are close, all four of them.” 

* * *

Now a few years older, Yuri sometimes accompanies his mom to the university when her boss has seminars scheduled on the weekends, but he never truly stays in the lecture hall for the duration of it.

Rather, Yuri visits the library that is just close by. After their life turned around, he’d found a new passion for books and quickly read through most of the ones at his disposal in his first school. His mom bought him some volumes, and her coworkers sometimes give him a few copies as well. 

His favorite book is one with pretty pictures of birds that he likes to flip through in the nights when he has trouble falling asleep, or when a nightmare wakes him up in the middle of the night. Like the visions of a bleeding Dorothea, there are times when he sees similar things in his sleep, people he doesn’t know but that still leave him a bit distraught anyway. 

Adventure stories are his favorite to read, especially the ones with spaceships and fights with laser guns. Yuri likes that, the robots, the stars, weird alien monsters, the exploration of imaginary planets.

Yet, as he’s looking through the row of books for something to read while his mom is working, he stops when his eyes spot a particular title, _Loog and the Maiden of Wind_. He’s never heard of this one before, but it sounds awfully familiar like many things do. Yuri takes it from the shelf, turns it over to look at the pretty picture of a gallant knight in silver armor riding on horseback, reaching his hand for a woman with long, flowy hair and dress.

It’s far from the kind of stories he likes to read. Yuri doesn’t see the appeal in stories about sword fights and chivalry when stories about laser guns and space bounty hunters exist, but something is compelling him to give this one a try.

The story is one he knows, somehow, as he enunciates the words quietly under his breath, tripping every once in a while at a particularly long word. It’s almost like he can hear someone else reading it at the same time, their weight pressed against his side. 

Yuri doesn’t notice that he falls asleep at some point of the book, and dreams of a boy with grey hair that wields a bow.

* * *

He transfers to another school when the school year starts, too old to remain in that one. Yuri had made tentative friends with Dorothea, sometimes indulging her in her conversations, sometimes sitting close to her when it was craft time. He noticed she enjoyed singing and had a good voice too, but he never joined when she asked, no matter how good her puppy dog eye game was.

Dorothea isn’t in this new school, but he doesn’t think it will be an issue. He didn’t have friends before, and so Yuri figures that it won’t be too hard to go back to that moment in time when he didn’t know anyone. 

Yuri finds a spot close to the window on the first day of class, where he can watch the birds in the times his mind wanders during lectures, and sits on the two-person desk. The seat closest to the hallway between desks remains empty, and other students walk into the classroom claiming empty tables. 

“Can I sit here?” He looks away from the trees outside to find a girl standing to his right, already placing her backpack on the desk despite his lack of answer. Yuri offers a nod and watches as she sits down, her red hair and eyes contrasting with her brown skin. “What?” 

He blinks, a hazy memory dissipating like morning fog, and extends a hand in her direction. “I’m Yuri.” 

Her red gaze flickers down to his hand before she takes it in a handshake. “Hapi.”

* * *

When December rolls around, Yuri accompanies his mom to the party in Garreg Mach, hosted at every year’s end. His mom wraps a scarf snugly around his neck and he slips his shoes into sturdy boots before they leave. 

It’s been a few winters now that he hasn’t felt the chilling cold biting into his skin, or heard the loose shutters of the window rattling in the middle of the night. Now eleven, Yuri doesn’t have to wander the snow covered streets while wearing flimsy shoes, nor does he have to huddle near his mom for warmth as they shared their few blankets. Although, cuddling with her is still nice, especially when they’re watching a movie.

The party isn’t lavish, but it’s tastefully decorated with some flower arrangements here and there, and there’s music playing in the background. There’s a long table of food, diced cheese and cold cuts, different kinds of breads and spreads, some fruits like grapes and strawberries, and other kinds of snacks. 

Yuri doesn’t know his mom’s coworkers all that well, but he sticks to her side regardless as she goes around to talk with friends. His hand is full of pretzel sticks and he munches on them as she mingles, sometimes offering a smile when her coworkers greet him brightly. A few even go as far as ruffling his hair, and he pats it down as discreetly as possible. 

When he runs out of pretzel sticks, Yuri tugs on his mom’s sleeves and says he will go get more snacks, so she stays put to wait for him to return. The table of food is located at the back of the room, so he weaves his way through the attendants nimbly, stopping close to the cheese selection.

“You don’t have to be shy,” a woman says from further down the table. Yuri could recognize that hair color anywhere, green like sea foam. “You can take whatever you want, okay?” 

The same woman who found him that day - Byleth, if he recalls correctly - is looking down at a young boy around his age, patting his light grey hair gently. Yuri halts in collecting cheese cubes into his hand, staring wide eyed at the boy. His face may be turned down, but Yuri can see the freckles from here. And then their gazes meet, his lavender eyes locking with unfamiliar-yet-familiar green ones. 

“Hey, Yuri.” Byleth greets, placing both her hands on the boy’s skinny shoulders. “It’s been a while.” 

“Hi.” He nods in her direction, but he’s still looking at the boy. He’s so familiar. Yuri has seen him before, he knows it, _but where?_

“This is Ashe,” Byleth introduces, giving the boy a slight push forward. “Ashe, this is Yuri. His mom works with Professor Hanneman.” 

“Hello.” Ashe, despite the bright flush on his cheeks from the attention, offers Yuri a wave of his hand and a smile. “Nice to meet you.” 

Byleth’s smile widens. “Why don’t you two go and play? Parties like this are a bit boring for kids, I imagine.” 

Ashe stammers, looking up at her. “I- it’s not boring-” 

She laughs, running her fingers through his hair again. “It’s okay, Ashe. I know you must be tired of following us around. Go on, go play.” Byleth gives him one last reassuring smile and nods at Yuri again before taking her leave. They watch as she meets up with the same man from the last time and another woman with green hair, both holding a kid each. Given the color of their hair, Yuri guesses they are related to Ashe. 

Ashe. Yuri turns his eyes to him again, watching as he squirms a bit under the attention. Even his name is familiar, like Byleth’s. He kind of looks like the archer boy from Yuri’s dreams. Maybe they’re the same? Is that even possible?

“What would you like to do?” Ashe asks, rocking back and forth on his feet. Yuri looks around the room, but doesn’t find anything fun that they can do together, and he doubts others would appreciate it if they started running around to play tag. 

“I don’t know,” Yuri offers with a shrug of his shoulders. “I have board games back at home, but I don’t think my mom would let me go get them alone.” 

“N-No, it’s okay.” Ashe waves both hands, looking troubled. _He doesn’t like board games_ , Yuri’s mind supplies helpfully, and he just rolls with the information. “I think Flayn put a game of Uno in my siblings’ bag. Do you know how to play?” 

“Yeah.” Smiling, Ashe reaches over to take him by the hand and guides him over to the green haired family. Yuri isn’t fond of people getting in his space like that, touching him so casually, but like with Byleth so many years back, Yuri doesn’t feel troubled by it. 

He follows Ashe at a distance, who constantly looks over his shoulder to make sure Yuri is still trailing behind despite their joined hands, towards a young woman he doesn’t know, who he thinks might be Flayn, and the same man he’s seen before. Seteth, he thinks, Byleth’s husband from what his mother said. 

Flayn (or not Flayn) is holding a young boy in her arms, tucked against her hip. He has a striking resemblance to Ashe, all freckled face and green eyes and pale hair, holding close to his chest a colorful fish plushie. The girl in Seteth’s arms has her face tucked into his neck, cheek mushed on his shoulder and eyes closed in deep sleep. They both seem close in age; perhaps twins?

Seteth’s eyes glimmer with familiarity and something else when he looks at them. “I see you have met Yuri.” 

Ashe nods with a hum of agreement. “Did we bring Uno? We wanted to play something...”

“Yes, it’s in the bag,” the young woman supplies, smiling sweetly at Yuri. “Hello, Yuri. I am Flayn. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

She sounds so formal that he feels a bit out of his depth. “Hi.” 

Seteth turns around to show the bag hanging from his shoulder, watching as Ashe opens one of the zippers to look for the deck of cards. “You can play at our table, Ashe. It is more comfortable than sitting on the cold floor. Better for your health, too.” 

“Thank you.” He smiles at Seteth, closing the bag quickly. “Come on, Yuri!” 

Yuri follows him to the table, and they play for most of the night. Ashe is awful at it, and every frustrated pout and frown on his face makes Yuri’s smile get a bit wider, but Ashe doesn’t give up. At random intervals, either his mom or Byleth will drop by to place a plate of snacks on the table and refill their glasses with juice. 

Time flies by fast, and it’s the most fun Yuri has had in a while.

* * *

As the months pass, Yuri befriends Hapi. It isn’t easy; he’s quiet and she’s quieter, but somehow they warm up to each other at some point of the school year. Maybe he has all the duo assignments to thank for, as the teachers often have the students who share desks pair up to complete them during classes. Either way they’re friends - or getting there.

She likes stars, and he likes birds. Sometimes Hapi will talk about some random star or constellation that has her attention that week, and it’s only then that she bothers to talk a lot, otherwise her answers are short and straight to the point. 

Once, she brings a constellation chart to school and tries to share some of her knowledge with him. To repay that gesture, he brings his book with pictures of birds and goes on and on about every little fact he knows about them. It’s then that she starts calling him Yuri-bird, and it tugs at something in subconscious insistently.

Yuri isn’t used to being the most energetic one of a friendship, even if he still is rather quiet. Ashe is plenty energetic on both of their behalves, making up stories and fantasy worlds whenever they meet up, which has become quite often. It’s not always because of parties; most of the time, Ashe just says he wants to see Yuri again and Byleth will speak with his mom, and so they meet up in the college library or the small playground by Yuri’s apartment. 

The more they meet, the more he sees Ashe in a different setting. He’d like to chalk all these images up as Ashe’s love for tales of brave knights, but a part of him knows it’s not his imagination. Yuri sees Ashe wielding an actual lance when he’s retelling his favorite part of a book or movie, and he knows it happened once at some point, maybe too long ago.

It doesn’t make sense, but he doesn’t know who to talk to about it. His mom wouldn’t know what to say, and it’s not like Ashe is seeing glimpses of _something_ , too. Ashe would’ve told him. 

Months pass, the school year comes to an end. Yuri meets with Ashe nearly every day in their long summer vacation, and Flayn drives them to parks or funfairs every weekend. Then Ashe goes away on a family trip for a week and Yuri is left to play with a new online game with Hapi, and when he returns their old schedule resumes. And so it goes for two more years.

When school begins again on the third, two new students have joined the class: a blonde girl with a boisterous laugh, and a boy with sharp eyes and messy hair. They share the table in front of Hapi and Yuri’s, and the boy sits backwards on the chair before classes begin to get to know them. 

Both of the new students talk until they can’t anymore. Yuri doesn’t feel like they’re strangers at all.

* * *

“Mom, I can look after myself.” 

His mom has to accompany Professor Hanneman on a seminar in another state, and at fifteen, Yuri knows he’s fully capable of looking after himself in her absence. He’s done it before when he was much younger; this should be easier than it was. 

But his mom has always been the type to worry, so she brushes back his bangs and kisses his forehead. “I know, sweetie, but I’d feel better knowing that you’re staying with someone else. It’s not going to be a short trip, after all.”

She leaves an hour later for a ten day trip, giving him another kiss goodbye and slipping into the backseat of the taxi when it arrives. Yuri watches her go from the sidewalk of their new apartment, his own packed back slung over his shoulder as he waits for his own ride. The Eisners have always been punctual, Seteth more so than anyone else Yuri has ever known. 

Right on time, the black car pulls up, and Yuri can’t help but smile as Ashe waves excitedly from the passenger seat. Yuri had figured he’d be the most excited at the prospect of a ten day sleepover, and he sees now he wasn’t wrong. 

The Eisners’ home - Ashe’s home, really - is located in a high end neighborhood of the city, where every house is big and fancy with lush front lawns and pools in the back. Despite the size of their home and the fact that there’s a big pool and a greenhouse in their backyard, the Eisners are surprisingly simple people, the kind who likes to go on fishing trips and camping. Though Seteth and Flayn are so formal all the time that sometimes they sound straight up ancient, Byleth is more easy going and casual, which balances them out.

Ashe and his siblings were taken in shortly after Ashe had turned ten, having lost their parents in a car crash a few months before. With no living relatives, they roamed the streets for a while, and Ashe turned to thievery when he couldn’t support his siblings through legal means. 

After a few months of homelessness, Byleth and Seteth adopted them. Yuri thinks it was noble of them to take in all three siblings, but he wonders what drove them to Gaspard, what drew them so far away from their home at just the right moment to find the Uberts in one specific alley out of many in the big city. 

Not that he is complaining; Ashe _is_ his best friend, after all, and the following ten days are some of the most fun of his life. Though they attend different schools, every afternoon and evening is spent together playing video games, cooking, reading, and even doing homework is fun. Sometimes, Ashe will take Yuri into the greenhouse and teach him about herbs and plants, tidbits that he learned from his parents and Byleth. 

One night, after he’s gone downstairs to the kitchen for a glass of water, Yuri stops outside Seteth’s office on his way back when he hears muffled voices. He’s been inside that room with Ashe a couple of times; Seteth has many old tomes and maps of Fódlan, the pages so thin and yellowed they need to be handled with care. 

More often than not, Yuri asks himself where he got all of that. Or where Byleth got her collection of swords. Or where they got so much money to afford this lavish house. 

“They still don’t remember,” Byleth laments, and a sigh from Seteth follows her quiet words, like they’ve had this conversation many times before.

“That is to be expected. It is rare when people retain their memories.” There’s a lapse of silence, and Seteth continues. “Fret not, Byleth. The soulmark is there, you have seen it on Ashe. It will work out in the end.”

Yuri pulls away before he can hear anything more, hastily retreating upstairs and closing the door of Ashe’s room when he enters. Ashe only gives him a mildly concerned look at his rushed entry, but doesn’t comment on it, instead turning back to the same puzzle of the video game they have been trying to beat for the past minutes. He hasn’t had any luck in getting past it by himself, it seems.

Sitting beside him on the ground, Yuri idly rubs at his chest. It’s kind of weird to think that, from the start, his fate was tied to someone else’s, and that he may never find out who this person is. Not that Yuri has any desire to embark on a journey to find his soulmate, like some people do. He’d rather settle with someone he feels a connection with, even if their soulmarks don’t match, like most people do. If the person reciprocates it at all, he thinks, stealing a glimpse at his friend.

“Ashe?” His friend turns his eyes to him in inquiry, but suddenly Yuri doesn’t know what to say. _Do you believe in this soulmate talk?_ he wants to ask, _what is your soulmark like? What will you do if you never find your soulmate?_

_And if you do?_

_Is it the same as mine?_

The last few questions steal the air from his lungs, and Yuri shakes his head to dispel the thought. He knows that, deep down, Ashe is the kind of person who would hope to one day come across his soulmate. He’s different from Yuri in that he would be happy with anyone he’s made to share a soulbond with. From the stories he reads, it’s clear Ashe enjoys the talks about fate.

So really, maybe it’s best if he never finds out about Ashe’s soulmark. They are private things anyways, and what will he do if it turns out they match and Ashe only starts liking him because of it, and not for himself?

What will he do if they don’t match? What of his feelings then?

Swallowing, Yuri turns his attention back to the game. “Have you looked over there?” 

Ashe turns to the TV as well, moving his character in the direction of a rock wall. Now closer, a crack is more noticeable, and he breaks it with some bombs to reveal an alcove “There’s a switch here. Nice one, Yuri!”

They high five as they always do, and Yuri tries hard to stop staring at Ashe from the corner of his eyes for the rest of his stay.

* * *

It’s prom, and Hapi and Yuri are standing near the spiked fruit punch as Constance dances away with some ginger boy that asked her, and Balthus is trying to chat up anyone who’ll give him the time of day. 

Hapi didn’t get many invitations to dance, which is just fine by her, and in contrast Yuri’s line of admirers only seems to increase. The last one to let their gaze linger on him was a young man around their age, his hair a deep blue and his eyes a lighter shade, and while he was cute, he reminded Yuri so much of Byleth that the mere idea of trying to have fun with him leaves him kind of sick. 

That idea in general leaves him queasy, no matter how many times he kisses people in dark corners or stumbles into their bed in house parties. He’s looking for the rush, the quick release, but he can’t stop the guilt from creeping up in the aftermath when he inevitably thinks of Ashe and his too bright, too sincere eyes. 

Worse are the times when he’s in the act and he sees _Ashe_ there, over him, under him, face contorted in pleasure, and it throws Yuri so much off his axis that he lurches away with the taste of bile on his tongue.

He can never tell if he’s yearning for his best friend so badly that he’s seeing things, or if these are the visions he’s gotten so used to reliving in the past years. If that’s the case, then what do they mean?

Hapi notices that he’s avoiding anyone who comes up to him like they’re the plague itself, but she never comments on it. “So, excited to start your college life?”

“Yeah. Going back to the dorms again.” He takes a drink from his cup, wrinkling his nose at the cheap alcohol. “Mom wants me to live the authentic college life and stuff.”

“Huh.” Hapi observes the room, and he takes notice how her eyes keep straying back to Constance. “I hope she doesn’t mean the parts that involve drugs and STDs too.” 

Yuri snorts, “Of course not.” 

Human resources seemed like a good choice for him to study, and he’s honestly excited for it. Constance is enrolling in a prestigious acting and singing school, Mittelfrank, quite a long distance away. Hapi will pursue a degree in astronomy, and Balthus is looking into competing in official wrestling matches to make a name for himself.

Ashe, he thinks, was torn between three different options. In the end, he picked history, which isn’t all surprising when most of his adopted family are history nerds just like him.

The night goes on, nothing remarkable happening. Yuri looks at his phone at some point, opens a new text from Ashe and the picture he’s sent of him and his two other friends, all three dressed up for their own graduation party. He would be jealous if he didn’t know the other two were dating. 

But then again, they get to spend tonight with Ashe, so maybe he is a little bit jealous.

* * *

Only a few years after they moved to their brand new apartment outside GMU’s limits, Yuri returns to the dorm rooms he’s all too familiar with.

Though his mother hoped and tried her best to provide him with proper education growing up before her new job, it was never certain if Yuri would ever have the means to attend to an university, thus her desire that he goes back to the dorms, share the small apartment with another teen, live the life she had always wanted to give him. 

He indulges in her wish, even if he’d be fine with the long commute to and from the university every day. Yuri thinks this apartment would be better off to some other student from a city far away, but he got the invitation to move into it, and he can guess how it happened.

As it turns out, the dorms aren’t so different from the small apartments for faculty and staff members he lived in for most of his life. With Garreg Mach being one of the most prestigious universities in Fódlan, it is to be expected that even the dorm rooms for students will be above average. 

They find that the apartment he was assigned to already has people inside, moving furniture around and setting it up for the remainder of their stay. Classes won’t be starting for another two weeks, and already he is going to meet his roommate. 

In hindsight, considering that his mom is very good friends with Byleth, the one who likely moved the strings necessary to fulfil his mother’s request, he shouldn’t be surprised that his roommate is Ashe. 

Despite the hefty discounts in tuition they get due to their parents’ positions in GMU, both Ashe and Yuri had studied their asses off to earn a full scholarship. If Yuri was worried before that their different courses would leave them with little time to meet up and talk, now he doesn’t have to worry about _that_ anymore. 

The real issue will be concentrating with Ashe being around all the time. 

Alec, Ashe’s brother, is organizing a few books in the bookshelf, whilst Alice, their sister, is setting up the TV in the small living room. Yuri spies Byleth in the kitchenette area, unloading pots and pans and stacking them in the cabinet under the sink. Flayn is storing non-perishable food and utensils in the cupboards. Further noises come from down the hall, presumably Ashe and Seteth. 

They’ve really got it all worked out. Meanwhile, all Yuri brought were some change of clothes, some books, his video game, and his favorite mug. 

A door closes, and Ashe emerges from the hall, perking up when he sees Yuri and his mom standing at the entrance. “Yuri, Miss Leclerc! Hello!” 

And his mother, of course, smiles sweetly at him, going as far as greeting Ashe with a kiss on the cheek before she joins both Byleth and Flayn in the kitchenette. Seteth nods at him and goes to help Alice with all the cables, and Ashe goes with Yuri in the direction of the bedrooms. 

“I didn’t know which one my roommate- er, you would want,” he says, stopping outside both open doors where a bag lies on the floor. “I thought it’d be best to wait and see.”

Yuri chuckles softly, shaking his head. Both rooms are the same, it would make no difference, but leave it to Ashe to worry about something like that. “I’ll take the one to the left.” That used to be his room when he lived with his mother on campus, so it’ll be easy to adjust back to the layout. 

Ashe nods, hefting the bag over his shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re my roommate!” He beams, so bright and warm that Yuri’s heart does a little flip. “This will be so fun!” 

Yes, it will. It will be also some kind of sweet torture, too.

* * *

Living with Ashe is everything Yuri had predicted and more.

Ashe is the early riser out of the two of them, so by the time Yuri drags himself away from his cocoon of blankets on the bed, there’s breakfast waiting for him in the kitchenette. They eat it sitting across from each other on the small table, or sitting on opposite sides of the couch as they watch an episode of a cartoon or an anime before classes, if they have the time. 

In return, Yuri is the one who usually cooks dinner, though Ashe is always around to help prepare the ingredients or wash the dishes. The kitchen area is too small for two people to be there moving about at once, but with every bump, Yuri gives him a sly smile and sometimes a little wink, which makes Ashe laugh and blush. 

Living with your best friend is easier and better than living with a stranger, so Yuri sends a mental thank you to Byleth whenever he and Ashe are doing something together, knowing that she was responsible for this arrangement. 

Yuri likes the evenings they spend together at the end of a long day, balancing plates or bowls on their laps as they sit in front of the TV. He likes the afternoons when they play games together, and how Ashe hides his face behind a pillow, or sometimes into Yuri’s shoulder, when Yuri convinces him to sit through one of the survival horror games he owns. Ashe has always been too afraid of ghosts, spirits, zombies and the like, but he’s curious enough to want to know the stories of the games.

He likes the Saturday nights when they meet up with friends and order pizza or takeout, how Linhardt is almost certain to fall asleep at some point, how Bernadetta only shows her face because there’s food involved, how Hapi always obliterates Caspar in a game of Smash, and how Ashe pouts adorably when he falls off the track in Mario Kart.

(It’s strange how much guilt Yuri feels around Bernadetta, but it doesn’t make sense; he’s never done anything to upset her. He didn’t even know her before she was assigned as Hapi’s roommate).

But Yuri likes Sundays the most, when they return from visiting their families and collapse on the couch, his head on Ashe’s lap, whose fingers tread through Yuri’s hair. Ashe hums a song neither of them actually know, but still sounds familiar, a quiet reprieve before the week starts again. 

* * *

They’re sitting on the fluffy rug on the living area, Ashe’s hand in Yuri’s as the latter applies a coat of different colored polish on each nail. Midterms week was hell, and it left Yuri with little time to care for himself as he usually would. The most time he had in the mornings was only enough to apply concealer to make it look like he was getting enough sleep, and then he was out the door while eating a breakfast burrito Ashe had prepared the night before.

It’s time for a new manicure, he decides, the last nail polish he applied now well chipped and mostly gone. Ashe offers his hand and allows Yuri to test out possible colors, wiggling his fingers once he’s done.

Ashe makes a noise as he inspects each color, pastels and vibrant tones alike. “Maybe I should wear these too,” he muses, bringing his hands closer to his face. “I’d stop looking so bland, then.” 

The words draw a cackle from Yuri at first, until they register and he narrows his eyes at him. “I’m sorry, what? You? Bland? Never.” 

Ashe laughs sheepishly and offers his hand again, Yuri now holding a cotton ball soaked in polish remover. He wrinkles his nose at the smell. “Everyone’s so bright and colorful. You, Caspar, Hapi, the Eisners,” Ashe begins, watching as Yuri rubs the cotton on his nails carefully. “It’s hard not to feel washed out in comparison when I have grey hair and green eyes. It’s nothing remarkable.”

“Well, I think you’re very remarkable.” Yuri clicks his tongue, finished with the task. “Your eyes are the prettiest shade I’ve ever seen.” 

Pink rises to Ashe’s cheeks, and he scratches his neck with a finger as he looks away. “C-Certainly, you can’t mean it. Byleth’s and Flayn’s eyes are so much prettier.” 

“Not for me.” Yuri picks a green colored bottle of nail polish, waving it in the air as if to stress his point. He’d bought this one specifically because it reminded him of Ashe. “Yours are my favorite. Always have been.” 

“O-Oh...” Ashe ducks his head, but the flush has already spread to his ears. “Thank you. It means a lot coming from you.” Yuri only makes an inquisitive noise, applying the first coat of polish on his own nails. “I thought the Eisners were so beautiful, with how ethereal and elegant they are, but then I met you at that party, and you feel real. Reachable. You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever met, Yuri.”

Heat spreads in his chest and some on his cheeks, and he turns to see Ashe giving him a shy, earnest smile that has Yuri reciprocating with one of his softer ones. “So are you, Ashe.” He says, reaching out to tug at a lock of grey hair. “Inside and out.” 

* * *

Yuri works part time in a bookstore a twenty minute walk away from GMU. He’s kind of grown out of his bookworm phase, though his course does require that he read a lot, but he was qualified for the job and it pays well, and sometimes he can get work done in the lull between customers. 

Another perk is the employee discount he gets with every purchase, which he uses mostly to buy books Ashe will enjoy. 

It’s a warm evening and Yuri is sporting a light sheen of sweat on his forehead by the time he makes it back to their dorm room. The rest of his hair had been tied in a loose bun at some point during the walk back, and now he’s looking forward to clipping his bangs away until he cools down. More important than that is the new book in a paper bag, another knight tale he’s pretty sure Ashe doesn’t own yet. 

“I’m home,” is what he would normally say as he pushed the door open, but today Yuri chokes on his breath at the sight that he finds in the living room. 

Now, nudity isn’t anything new to him. Yuri's done his fair share of escapades in the later years of high school, hopping in and out of beds in an attempt to quench the growing crush he harbored for his best friend, to no avail. 

However, in all the years he’s known Ashe, Yuri hasn’t seen him shirtless, ever. He’s aware that Ashe packs some muscle, he can see the definition in his arms when Ashe is wearing short sleeves and cooking in the kitchen, a byproduct of all the years of archery training since he’d been adopted by the Eisners. But he’d never witnessed the movement of the bare muscles on his back and shoulders, dotted with freckles the same way his face is, and he wonders idly if his chest is just the same. 

As he’s taking in the sight while Ashe is distracted drying his hair and looking at the TV, Yuri takes a step forward, noticing a strange mark on his right shoulder blade, surrounded by freckles. 

Some kind of plant? A flower, Yuri realizes, eyes widening at the familiarity of it. The stem, the five petals, the bud, the heart shaped leaf. 

Ashe’s soulmark, his mind supplies, _my soulmark_ , and suddenly his head is spinning. 

Yuri remembers, and he remembers _everything_.

Another difficult childhood, his mother returning home with bruises on some nights, an ederly man, a disease that nearly killed Yuri. Stealing from a young age, lying and cheating to survive, a noble man who took him in.

Standing beside the bed of a sleeping girl with purple hair, a knife in his hands, getting caught, being beaten black and blue. Beds, so many beds and faceless people he can barely count. Attending an academy, another Garreg Mach, being expelled due to a scandal, getting kicked out of the house that had taken him in, nearly losing the head from his shoulders if not for striking a deal with a lady with far too many secrets. 

Following a tunnel down to the underbelly of the monastery, making the underground his home and reign. The arrival of Balthus, Hapi, Constance, making friends with them but still keeping his distance, getting closer to Aelfric and learning of his plans, but scheming to counter those behind his back. The arrival of a professor, of _Byleth_ , with six other students trailing behind her. The prince, the princess, the heir, and nobles, all of them, except for him. Except for Ashe. 

Ashe, who approached him first when Count Rowe introduced Yuri to others as his adopted son. Ashe, his first friend, finding him again in Abyss after years apart, confused but willing to help, not wanting anything but the best for Yuri even after all he’d done. Ashe, chest deep in water in a steamy room, bringing attention to matching soulmarks and baring his own.

The kitchen, the apology, the hug, the way things had gotten better and they inevitably got closer. Nights spent talking, cooking together, sitting beside one another for a meal. The ball, the dance, the trip to the Goddess Tower and kissing him by one of the large windows. The night before the Holy Tomb, lying together in Yuri’s small bed to sleep. The last stand, an attempt to defend Garreg Mach, a wyvern soaring, a young man in silver armor shooting arrows with high precision.

Ashe, returned after five years, hair sprawled on his bed as he took Yuri in again and again. Ashe, once more, tending to the flowers, taking on kitchen duty, bringing food to Yuri in campsites, delivering them with a kiss. Ashe, this time over Yuri, in some room in the royal castle. Ashe, swimming naked in Derdriu, and Ashe, kissing Yuri so sweetly just hours before their last battle.

Ashe, pale and lifeless, scooped up in Yuri’s arms as he hummed a lullaby for the last time. 

Byleth, the Byleth he knows now, with lilies in her hair and a long white dress, making a promise. _You will find him again in another life, I’ll make sure of it._

“Yuri?” A frantic voice calls, and he cracks his eyes open to see a panicked Ashe leaning over him. “Oh thank the Goddess! I was about to call Byleth.” 

The last of the memories fade into nothingness as Yuri focuses on his best friend, his _soulmate_. “What happened?”

“You fainted. It must be the heat, it’s very hot outside today.” Ashe places a palm on Yuri’s forehead. “Are you feeling well?”

“Yeah.” Yuri pushes himself up from where he’d collapsed in the living room, further into their dorm than he had realized. “Sorry for fainting on you like that. Not one of my hottest moments.” 

Ashe laughs quietly, shaking his head at Yuri’s attempt of brushing his concerns off. His hair is still damp from his shower, and his shoulders, now covered by the towel, loosen up at Yuri’s confirmation of his well being. “I’ve seen plenty of your uncool moments, so don’t worry about this one.”

“Name one time when I have ever been uncool,” Yuri challenges as they pick themselves up from the floor. He spots the bag with the new book on the nearest chair. 

“How about that one time I caught you in your pajamas eating ice cream at three in the morning on the kitchen floor after one of your tests?” Ashe recalls, sticking out his fingers counts. “Or when you downloaded Silent Hill PT and got us both so scared that Byleth _and_ Seteth came to check on us? Or that one time you decided to cut your bangs yourself-” 

“Okay, that’s enough, I get it.” Yuri waves him off. “You’re one to talk, you screeched so loud when the monster dog attacked me when we were playing Silent Hill 1 that I thought I’d gone deaf in one ear.”

“W-Well, so did you!” Ashe counters, but Yuri only huffs.

“You can’t prove that.” He really can’t and it’s a good thing. It’s also good that Ashe doesn’t go around talking about his embarrassing moments, because if any of Yuri’s friends ever found out, especially Balthus, he’d never live in peace again. “Oh, remember when we’d just met and you really wanted to play Ocarina of Time, but you started crying when we found the Redeads for the first time?”

“Hey, their screams were very-”

“Or that one time at four in the morning when we were blasting Crush 40 songs and Seteth entered your bedroom unannounced because he couldn’t sleep, and you screamed-”

Ashe laughs, a bit strangled, and raises his hands up in surrender. “Fine, fine. You win.” He grabs both ends of his towel and turns around to return to the bathroom. “Are you hungry? We can try to make that noodle dish we saw online the other day.”

It’s a distraction, and any other day Yuri would brush it off and continue to tease Ashe further, but the slight peek of the soulmark he catches beneath Ashe’s towel distracts him. “Yeah, sure.” 

Ashe disappears into the bathroom, and Yuri massages his chest, thinking.

* * *

Yuri doesn’t get much sleep that night. Or the following one, or the following one, and so forth. Soon he might have to buy another concealer, because he’s quickly running out and Ashe is bound to ask questions once he takes notice of the shadows under his eyes. 

It all makes sense now, why Ashe enjoys knight stories so much, why Yuri had seen flashes of him time and again wielding a bow, why he’d dreamed of him for most of his life. 

Not only that, now Yuri understands why Hapi, Balthus and Constance feel so familiar to him - the Ashen Wolves, as they were called, four people who crossed paths too many centuries ago and formed an odd friendship, a means to an end if Aelfric had succeeded, the same Aelfric who teaches at the university at this day and age. 

And Dorothea, the first tentative friend he’d made at his first school, with whom he had a few talks during their academy days long ago, whom he watched being carried off the battlefield, lifeless, her torso cut up from the sharp edge of a blade. 

The guilt he’d felt for being around Bernadetta, the order he’d been given to take her life, that moment of hesitation that nearly cost his own. All of that, and she’d gotten so far only to die in Gronder Field, set ablaze by the one woman she’d sworn to follow. 

It’s a lot to take in and unpack, and Yuri spends most of his waking time trying to make sense of a life he lived in a period of time he’d studied in high school. The War of Enlightenment, as they called it, when the Emperor of the Adrestian Empire declared war on the Church of Seiros - when Edelgard, the girl in Yuri’s class, declared war against Miss Rhea, who’s now basically Ashe’s aunt.

If Ashe notices that Yuri has been very distracted lately - which he certainly does, Ashe is very observant - he decides not to ask, knowing that despite their close bond, Yuri has never been one to relay his worries to other people. But Yuri does notice that he’s been eating his favorite meals more often, that their stock of his favorite sweet tea, the one he’d had years ago when Byleth first found him, has been replenished, and that Ashe picks his favorite sci-fi movies to watch at night. 

One weekend on an unusually cold night in August, they share a fleece blanket as Ashe replays his favorite game, Twilight Princess. They know this game by heart, and they very much enjoy every second of it, but Yuri’s mind is elsewhere and Ashe is just content to stall for time as he rides around Hyrule Field shooting down monsters.

He’s always liked the bows, too. Always. 

Yuri slouches on the couch, resting his head on Ashe’s shoulder. There didn’t used to be many layers between them when they reunited after five apart back then, but he’s glad to know they have always been comfortable with being this close since the start in this lifetime. The soul bond, he thinks, or just a part of their subconscious that recognized one another from that point in time. 

It’s hard balancing his current feelings of attraction for his best friend with the onslaught he used to feel then, the love and lust and grief. It’s hard to go day by day with memories of a time long past, somehow feeling like they happened just yesterday and having to remind himself all the time that they’re not together. 

Yuri should speak with Ashe, he thinks, clear up the air, trust that Ashe will believe in him now as he did many times before, in this lifetime and another one. But first he needs to speak with someone else.

First, he needs to speak with Byleth.

* * *

The opportunity comes when one excursion to the old Garreg Mach Monastery is presented. Ashe is one of the first to sign up, and Yuri tags along to revisit the place he once lived in, kind of. 

The fortress has been repurposed into a museum, showcasing different pieces of armor, weapons, paintings and scriptures from the past centuries. Rhea looks after it, though from what Yuri remembers, she’s severed her ties with the Church of Seiros completely in the aftermath of the war. 

Flayn is one of the teachers to guide the large group of students through the halls she once called a home. Yuri keeps his eyes out for the entrances to Abyss, but they’ve been long sealed shut. He wonders what happened to the residents after his passing, when it was that the last person moved out and allowed the underground town to be shut down for good. 

In the large hall where students used to meet up to study together or play board games, there’s a grand painting of the Blue Lion House from the Imperial Year 1880, all eight students positioned with King Dimitri in the middle.Their faces are blurry, which is probably for the best considering the circumstances, though he recalls dimly that Seteth once mentioned it’s rare when people retain their memories from past lives.

Yuri remembers this. He remembers how they’d all met up once Edelgard had been defeated, how Byleth had hired Ignatz to make a sketch of the group and paint the picture mostly from memory after they all returned to their homes. He remembers how she’d asked him to include Ashe in the painting. 

Right beside it is a painting of the Ashen Wolves. Constance had been more than pleased at the opportunity to pose with all the pomp and grace House Nuvelle had to offer, while Hapi had been much of the opposite. And then there’s a solo picture of Byleth in her enlightened robes, the sword of the creator in one hand, the glow of magic on the other. 

“President Eisner quite enjoys talking about the Blue Lions,” Flayn mentions after a lengthy explanation of their deeds, turning to Byleth, who decided to tag along. “Would you like to share your knowledge?”

“Ah, I wouldn’t know where to start, there’s so much to say.” She looks at the painting, her eyes turning soft and her smile sad. Yuri wonders if the other students take notice of it. “There’s much the history books don’t talk about. For example, the Bloomed Overachiever was said to be quite clumsy. Old records say she nearly set fire to the old kitchen in the Monastery a handful of times. The Benevolent Soul was quite easily distracted and she tried to teach King Dimitri how to sew in their academy days. And then there’s the Arrow of Justice...”

Yuri perks up, looking at the painted image of Ashe that had been done with no live reference. “He gave his life before the final battle against the emperor to save a family of commoners that had been stuck in Enbarr. His favorite flower was violets.” 

She turns to allow Flayn to continue, but not before locking eyes with Yuri. Byleth only offers him a slight smile and leaves the hall.

* * *

Sneaking away from the group is rather easy, and Yuri finds her in the large greenhouse of the old monastery, looking at the lush plants they still keep around. He’s seen Byleth here many times before, tending to crops and flowers she planted herself. She doesn’t acknowledge his entrance, though he knows she knows he’s there. He wasn’t very subtle about it.

“I know you,” he says at last, and she slowly turns away from large blooming flowers growing by a pillar.

“Of course you do,” she replies, her smile a touch playful. “We’ve known one another for a long time, Yuri.” 

“Yes, longer than you’ve known me in this lifetime.” Her smile widens a fraction, an eyebrow slowly arching up. “You’re the reason my mom got hired all those years ago and I didn’t get to live another life of poverty, aren’t you?”

“So you remember.” Byleth observes, to which he replies with a nod. Standing here in this ancient place, she’s too different from the woman who helped them bake cookies as kids. She’s the professor once again, the archbishop, the Goddess reborn. “Yes, I am. I didn’t want my students to go through another hard life, so I’ve devoted myself to looking after them even now.” 

“Which is why you adopted Ashe and his siblings.” And why Dorothea has her mother around, and why Glenn is still alive, and why Sylvain’s brother, Miklan, didn’t turn into a complete piece of shit.

“Correct.” 

“And how did you find them?” All the way in Gaspard, in some random alleyway that no one would have thought of searching.

“My power has evolved from what it used to be, so it wasn’t that hard to track each of you down and make a few necessary changes.” Looking at her hand, she flexes her fingers experimentally. What is it like, he wonders, to control time? To have the power of a Goddess at your fingertips? “As it is now, I could probably undo my biggest regrets if I got the chance to go that far back in time.”

She’s talking about Jeralt’s and Ashe’s deaths, Yuri realizes. Byleth had never fully forgiven herself for it, as noticed by the amount of times she’d visited the graveyard until she left the monastery looking the same as she does now.

“Why do I remember?” He asks at last. “Why doesn’t he?” 

“I don’t know,” she laments again, and once more he thinks of that conversation he overheard in Seteth’s office. They knew all along, they were talking about them. “My best guess is you had a catalyst. How did you remember?”

“I first started dreaming of him after I met you, and then Dorothea sparked some... Memories.” Yuri’s not so lucky sometimes in blocking out the image of blood seeping into cobblestone. “Then the Ashen Wolves, and feeling strange around Bernadetta, and then I saw Ashe’s soulmark a few weeks ago. It all came back.”

“So I was your catalyst,” she muses, playing with the ring on her finger. “Ashe sometimes mentions that some people and names are familiar to him, but he’s never said anything about dreams and visions, flashes of past memories.” Byleth pauses and furrows her brow. “Have you considered showing him your soulmark?” 

“I- can’t do that.”

“Why not? Are you afraid he’ll turn you down?” She laughs, so loud in the greenhouse that it’s jarring. “Yuri, Ashe died loving you with all his heart. And he’s still that hopeless romantic he was deep down, expectantly waiting for his soulmate.” She observes him for a few quiet moments, humming at whatever she sees. “Are you afraid he’ll only want you because of the soulbond and not because of legitimate feelings?”

He tries to decline, but no proper words come to him, so Yuri is left to stammer uselessly. Her eyes glimmer with playfulness again before it softens into warm affection. “You used to be more perceptive, then. But I did take away all the things that made you that way, didn’t I, so it’s understandable.”

“What are you trying to imply?” He asks, heart beating a little too fast, throat closing up a bit too much.

“That he already wants you for you, Yuri.” Byleth slips her hands into the pockets of her pants, her usual jeans traded for slacks when on the job. “It’s so clear to see on his face. My guess is Ashe only hasn’t said anything because he doesn’t want to upset his soulmate - which is you, by the way, in case that wasn’t clear enough - in case he does find them. Coming clean about it will take him out of his misery of wanting you and wanting that fairytale type of love of finding his soulmate.” 

Yuri processes her words, staring at the same old stone floor from centuries ago. He can feel the weight of her gaze on him before it slips away to look past his form, and he turns his head to look at whatever caught her attention.

It’s the young man from prom, the one with dark blue hair and lighter eyes. He stares at Byleth for a moment before offering a nod and walking away to return to the tour group. In broad daylight, he looks even more like her, as if they could be twins of some sort.

“I found out my parents were reborn,” she says, as if she can read his thoughts. Which she just might, Yuri doesn’t know. “My mother is alive and well. They had a son, named him Byleth. History does repeat itself.” 

“Have you talked to them?” Yuri finds himself asking, turning his gaze back to her.

“I wouldn’t know what to say.” She shrugs slightly, her smile rueful. “They’re better off not knowing, I think.” 

He continues after a long exhale. “You did _all_ of this-” the taking him home, hiring his mother, adopting Ashe, turning them into best friends, setting them up for the same dorm room- “to keep a promise you made to me?” 

“I did. I told you I’d bring the both of you together again, and I keep my words.” Byleth tilts her head slightly. “Where are you trying to get?”

“If that was your goal all along, then why didn’t you tell us from the start?”

“Now that’s a bit contradictory with your own wishes, don’t you think?” She blinks at him like he’s stupid, and maybe he is. Or maybe it’s the sleep deprivation from all the overthinking Yuri’s been subjecting himself to. “Sure, I could have always let you swim in the pool without the UV shirts and let both of you get sunburned so you’d see the soulmarks faster, but it isn’t what happened the last time, was it? You already had a history together, even if a brief one, and the soulmarks pushed you closer. I wanted it to happen naturally. I wanted you two to be friends first and foremost. I didn’t want the both of you to feel like you needed to have any kind of relationship because of the soulbond.” 

There was a lot of thought and care put into this, but he supposes she had plenty of time to figure this out. It’s been nearly a millennia since then, and she and Seteth and the others have been living together like a family to keep appearances and conceal their identities. They had so much time to prepare to change all of their lives. 

“Ashe is waiting, Yuri.” Byleth offers him a smile and turns back to the flowers. “And so are you, I believe.” 

* * *

On a Friday night, they’re in the living room of their dorm, with Ashe sitting on the plush rug whilst Yuri lies on the couch behind him. Plates from their dinner are in the kitchen sink, an easy pasta dish that Yuri cooked earlier, and bowls are stacked on the small coffee table, the only remnants left behind of the dessert Ashe prepared. 

It’s been a few weeks since Yuri’s talk with Byleth in the old greenhouse of the monastery-turned-museum, and still he hasn’t thought of the perfect way to tell Ashe everything. But long enough has passed that Yuri has decided that maybe it doesn’t need to be perfect, maybe he only needs to be honest and clear with his feelings and intentions, and the rest will figure itself out. 

And to think, in some other lifetime, he would never have taken this risk unless he was sure the outcome would be a positive one. 

Yuri twirls strands of grey hair as Ashe plays another Zelda game, exploring the vast land on horseback and collecting treasure. It has always been his favorite video game franchise; he’s always loved the idea of exploring faraway places, defending others, and being a hero.

Being a knight. 

He waits as Ashe finishes beating up a large creature with only one eye, running around and shooting arrows at its obvious weak spot. The enemy crumples and bursts into black smoke, and Ashe eagerly moves the character forward to collect the dropped goods. 

“Ashe?” Yuri asks, receiving a hum and a slight tilt of his head as an answer. “I love you.” 

Ashe chokes a bit and laughs, a tad too nervous, pink dusting his cheeks. “W-Where did this come from?”

Since the talk with Byleth, Yuri has made the effort of being more observant, of keeping an eye on Ashe to see if his feelings were always displayed so clearly on his face as she’d claimed. And she was right; Yuri caught him staring too many times when they met with friends, started noticing the softness in his eyes and the corners of his lips when he smiled at Yuri, how gentle Ashe is whenever Yuri is concerned.

Slowly, Yuri slides down to sit beside Ashe on the ground. Didn’t they have a similar conversation a lifetime ago? What had Ashe said? “Nothing. I’ve just been wanting to tell you that for a while now. I thought you should know.” 

With another strangled laugh, Ashe pauses the game and sets the controller aside. The ambient music from the game is gone now, leaving them in silence. “I love you too, Yuri. You’re my- best friend, after all.” 

Yuri hones in on the pause like a hawk, eyes searching Ashe’s face. Ashe can barely meet his eyes, too embarrassed. “That I am,” he agrees. Slowly, he moves his hand to rest over Ashe’s, his skin much smoother from what it used to be back then. “But I’m not talking about it like that.” 

Ashe swallows, green eyes lowering to look at their joined hands, and he laughs. “You- you can’t be serious, Yuri.” 

“Don’t tell me you think I don’t like you,” Yuri tries, and yes, they definitely had this conversation before. Before Enbarr, before the end. 

“No, I know you like me,” Ashe says, quiet, and Yuri already knows what’s coming, or has a general idea of it, so he cuts Ashe short, leaning forward until their faces are a breath apart and the close proximity shocks Ashe into going quiet. 

“Ashe.” Yuri squeezes his hand and says, before leaning in, “Shut up.”

It’s a gentle, sweet press of the lips, like they’re both too inexperienced, but still Yuri holds his breath and he can feel Ashe doing the same. Time halts for a second, white noise in his ears, until Yuri pulls away to look at Ashe, his face covered in a fierce blush and his eyes closed, lips parted as he exhales. 

The hand under Yuri’s clenches, turns, grasps his own just as tightly as Ashe surges forward for more. It’s a bit messy now, a clumsiness born out of the urgency they feel, but no less heartfelt or meaningful. Ashe twines his fingers in Yuri’s hair, and Yuri scrambles onto his lap, leaning over him to take control. Ashe squeezes his waist and it feels good in more ways than he can count.

“Ashe,” Yuri is the first to break away again with a gasp, catching the hem of his shirt in his hands. “I need to show you something.” 

Ashe jolts underneath him when Yuri begins lifting up the shirt, grabbing onto his wrists to stop him. His face is as red as a tomato, his eyes comically wide. “W-What are you doing?” 

He squeaks, actually _squeaks_ , and it’s so cute and endearing that Yuri laughs. “Get your head out of the gutter, dove.” 

Ashe averts his eyes, but glances back when Yuri has removed the shirt completely. He’s fast about it; he can tease Ashe with the same action later, make it slower and more sensual, but right now his priority is baring his mark. 

And it readily catches Ashe’s attention, green eyes zeroing on the violet shape that rests innocently on Yuri’s left pec. He swallows when Ashe lifts a finger to trace the mark, his touch so featherlight and gentle it makes Yuri shiver, fingers clenched around the soft fabric of his shirt.

Yuri watches him, waiting for some more recognition, a flash in his eyes, anything that can indicate that Ashe remembers, but nothing happens.

“We match,” Ashe breathes out, stunned. 

“We do. That evening I fainted, I saw your mark and I remembered everything.” He waits until Ashe meets his eyes. “Do you? Remember anything at all?” 

“I-I don’t.” Yuri exhales slowly, feeling the pang of disappointment in his chest despite all that he’d prepared himself for it. “I’m sorry.” 

“It’s not your fault.” He’s quick to reassure, taking Ashe’s hand in his own and rubbing circles into it with his thumb. “I heard it’s rare to get your memories back, so you might never recover them.” 

Ashe, ever the optimistic, shakes his head with a smile. “Or maybe they’ll come back with time.”

“Maybe,” Yuri relents, “but don’t get your hopes up.”

Nodding, Ashe looks at the mark again. “All this time and you were right here. If I’d known...”

“You can talk to Byleth about that.” Yuri releases his hand to put the shirt back on, and Ashe frowns in confusion. “She owes you an explanation, I think.”

* * *

There’s breakfast waiting for him the next morning, later than usual, a high stack of waffles waiting to be lathered in maple syrup, with fruits on the side and Yuri’s favorite tea in a beautiful teapot Ashe brought from the Eisners.

Ashe is just finishing placing the plates on the table when Yuri emerges from his bedroom, his hair the usual rat’s nest that it is every morning. They’d talked until late in the night, cramped together on the couch and redefining their relationship, shifting their friendship into something more. More kisses had been traded, and cuddling had felt twice as good.

Yuri can’t help but grin wide when Ashe looks at him, running a hand through his hair to tame it as he saunters closer to his boyfriend. Ashe is still a bit shy and awkward at the change, one he admitted he thought would never happen, so Yuri is more than happy to go up to him and press a good morning kiss to his lips.

“Morning, my little sparrow,” Yuri murmurs into his cheek before planting a loud kiss on it. Ashe swats him with the kitchen towel and quickly turns around to hide his burning face, and Yuri plops down on his chair with a laugh. “Look at all this food you’ve made. You’re already spoiling me. You really are the best boyfriend in the world.”

“I’ve been cooking this much for five months now.” Ashe sits across from him and pours them some tea. Albinean berry blend, the same from a lifetime ago. It shouldn’t surprise Yuri that Byleth remembers. 

Yuri rests his elbow on the table and props his chin on his hand, looking at him with a sleepy smile as Ashe transfers some waffles to his plate. “Goddess, I love you so much.” 

Ashe nearly drops the plate, but succeeds in placing it on the table in front of Yuri without making a mess. “Are you making it your life goal to embarrass me to death?”

“Not to death,” Yuri counters, picking up his cutlery. “I don’t want to lose you prematurely again.” 

“Right.” Ashe puts a piece of fruit in his mouth and chews thoughtfully. Yuri shared with him some of the memories from their past life, including Ashe’s fall in Enbarr. After the silence stretches on for too long, he lightly clears his throat. “I texted Byleth. We’re invited for dinner, and then she’ll talk to me after.” 

“Sounds like a plan.” Yuri bumps their feet together, smiling at Ashe from around the strawberry in his mouth. “I can’t believe I’m meeting your parents this early into our relationship. You must really love me, hm?” 

Ashe rolls his eyes, but there’s a fond smile on his face, and he leans forward, hand placed palm up on the table. Yuri is quick to put his own over it, tracing his pulse with his fingertips. “I do,” Ashe smiles, as sweet as their breakfast. “More than you know.”

Returning his smile, Yuri replies, “I might have an idea.”

* * *

Seteth only spares a look at their joined hands and steps aside to let them in, his smile growing wider when Ashe pulls Yuri along. Alice and Alec come skipping down the stairs to greet them, Flayn just one step behind.

Byleth is standing on the threshold that leads to the kitchen, leaning up against the door jamb and smiling as Ashe detangles his hand from Yuri’s to hug his siblings. She nods at Yuri when their eyes meet and disappears into the kitchen to tend to their dinner. 

The meal is a favorite of theirs from ages past, still cooked to perfection the same way the monastery staff used to do. Given the yellowed color of the pages and the slanted handwriting of the little book of recipes, it’s an old one they kept from that time, likely taking it with them the day they left when Yuri’s hair was more grey than lavender. 

Byleth and Ashe disappear into Seteth’s office once they have finished eating, leaving the others to tend to the dirty dishes. Between five of them, the task gets done quickly, leaving Alice and Alec to set up the Switch on the big TV in the living room while Seteth prepares some tea for the both of them. It’s spicier than Yuri likes, but Seteth is now technically, kind of, his future father-in-law and Yuri doesn’t want to impose, even if he knows they have his favorite tea somewhere in the cupboard. 

“I am happy for you. Both of you,” Seteth says, low enough that Ashe’s siblings won’t hear. “It has been a long time, but finally you are together, truly together. Byleth may rest easy now.” 

“She really went to such lengths to keep her word,” Yuri muses, looking at the hand painted flowers on the delicate saucer. “I admire her for it. I also owe her thanks for everything she’s done for me and my mother, and Ashe.”

“It was nothing,” Seteth dismisses. “We have been keeping track of all students all these years. We would not have let any of you live in any sort of bad condition.”

Yuri stares at his tea, the usual pinkish color he’s familiar with now replaced by a warm brown shade. “Have you always planned on taking in the Uberts?”

“No, we have not.” Seteth sips his tea, watching the siblings and Flayn choose characters for a few rounds of Mario Kart as they wait for Ashe. “Byleth was moving strings so Lonato would adopt them as he did once before, but things took a sharp, unexpected turn and he became unavailable, which is why we so promptly travelled to Gaspard and took them under our wing.” He turns to refill his cup. “We almost took in Dorothea too, but thankfully her mother survived an illness.” 

Yuri hums, looking up from his tea to stare at Seteth. “So... Are you and Byleth really married or is this a ruse?” He never thought that someone as uptight as Seteth would ever be Byleth’s type, even if it’s for a fake marriage. “Like when you used to say Flayn was your little sister.”

Seteth makes a face and pointedly chooses not to respond, sipping his tea instead. Yuri doesn’t know what conclusions to draw from it and drops the topic with a snicker.

* * *

Ashe is the early riser of the two, but this morning they’re both awake when the sun begins its slow ascend in the sky. Yuri lies by his side, head on his chest, a position that they often found themselves in centuries ago. Ashe is tracing lines on Yuri’s back, their legs tangled together in the small single bed. 

He’s been pensive since the talk with Byleth on the previous night, green eyes still a bit puffy from tears he’d shed after she revealed the truth. Ashe wasn’t sad, he said later when they returned to the dorm, just emotional.

Yuri doesn’t doubt that Byleth apologized profusely for failing to keep him alive, and he doubts Ashe would ever blame her for his fall.

They’re going to his mom’s today. It’s only fair that she gets to know of the change in their relationship after the Eisners were made aware of them. Yuri is certain she’ll be excited about it; she would sometimes ask if he’d ever look for a partner, and would suggest Ashe when Yuri lied to her face that he didn’t have an interest in anyone. 

It may be too soon, when you think about it, to go around presenting one another to their respective families as boyfriends, but Yuri has no plans of ever letting go of Ashe, and he’s confident Ashe feels the same. 

The ticking of the clock on Ashe’s bedside table fills the room, accompanied by bird songs as they rise at the start of another day. Yuri blinks slowly and cuddles closer to Ashe with a content sigh, curling his arm tighter around his waist.

“Yuri?” Ashe murmurs, and he hums in response, too sleepy to actually talk. “I’m sorry for leaving you.”

“Don’t worry ‘bout it,” he slurs, cheek mushed on Ashe’s chest.

“It’s... Hard not to,” Ashe protests, and Yuri can imagine the frown on his face, the downward pull of his lips. 

With a grunt, he picks himself up and props his weight on an elbow, looking at Ashe with tired eyes. “It was a lifetime ago, Ashe.” Yuri’s eyelids feel heavy, but he forces them to stay open. “It’s water under the bridge. Just don’t- don’t go getting yourself killed again.”

“I have no intention of doing it again.” Lifting a hand to caress his face, Ashe smiles when Yuri leans into his palm. “I know I caused you a lot of pain, though. That was never my intention.”

“Sometimes we hurt others without meaning to.” Like when he’d dismissed their matching soulmarks, and many other times before and after that, with or without Ashe involved. “You saved that family, though. I’m sure they were very thankful.” 

Ashe makes a noise of disagreement, but doesn’t say anything else, only continues to trace patterns on Yuri’s skin. It makes him tingle pleasantly.

“I thought of you,” Ashe whispers, closing his eyes while Yuri’s widen almost comically. “I don’t remember anything from then yet, but I know I thought of you when I was dying. I don’t know how, but I-”

Yuri shushes him with a sweet kiss on the lips, cupping Ashe’s face gently in his hand. “Don’t hurt yourself trying to remember, dove. I believe you.”

Another kiss, a simple press of the lips that linger together until Yuri’s skin buzzes for more. Ashe pulls away, brushing lavender hair out of Yuri’s eyes and tucking the strands behind his ears, but they slip back into place afterwards. “What do you want for breakfast? I can make whatever you like.”

“You,” Yuri answers with a sleepy laugh, grinning when Ashe flushes. “Kidding. How ‘bout we go get breakfast somewhere? As a date?”

“I like the sound of that,” Ashe murmurs. 

Yuri lies down again and smiles at him, letting his eyes slip shut. “Later, though. I want to sleep some more.”

Ashe hums in agreement and kisses his forehead, wrapping his arms snugly around Yuri. He feels safe like this. Whole. 

**Author's Note:**

> _Our partnership is at an end, and even as I speak, I can feel my consciousness fading away. Before I enter the sleep that calls me to the sword, I wish to relay to you words that I recorded many times over the course of our journey. Many have said them to you thus far, but I now wish to say them for myself... Thank you, Master Link. May we meet again in another life..._
>
>> Fi, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
> 
> Of all the games I've played since I was just a babey, this is the one that made me cry the hardest. I think of it very often, and Fi's parting words were very fitting for these two fics :'^)
> 
> [will to fiiiight](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/552212080401580065/755828438392111155/WILL_TO_FIGHT.JPG)
> 
> I thank milady [Mari](https://twitter.com/Tactician_girl) for this one shitpost in particular, and [Carl](https://twitter.com/ms_millennium) for all the times she helped me settle something minor.
> 
> That may not be the case everywhere, but some places here provide housing to their employees, so Leclerc fam moving to a new apartment was based on that. And the dorm rooms were inspired by [these](https://housing.osu.edu/livingoncampus/regional/newark-campus/floor-plans4/) [two](https://housing.unl.edu/courtyards) in particular. 
> 
> The ambiguity of Seteth and Byleth's relationship was left open on purpose, so take that as you will. Personally, I do think they would all stick together and pretend to be a family; it would make eternity less lonely. Also, the idea of having two Byleths alive at the same time _like that_ was one I had out of the blue, and it's stupidly funny to me for some reason.
> 
> | [yuriashe playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0OfM6V57iDzm6EU5URAXdC?si=-1h-RuptSsCWP9RvIpmO9g) | [tumblr](https://chininiris.tumblr.com/) | [twitter](https://twitter.com/chininiris) | [carrd](https://chininiris.carrd.com/) |


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